


10-00

by LuthienLuinwe



Series: Tens [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Jason Todd is a good brother, Shooting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 10:25:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14353557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuthienLuinwe/pseuds/LuthienLuinwe
Summary: Oracle told him to kill his comms and scanners.He wished he would have listened.





	10-00

Damian hated monitor duty, always had. His talents were really much better suited to helping his father fight crime as Robin. But he’d dislocated his shoulder during patrol the night before, and Pennyworth and Father had insisted he stay home and help Oracle. He had argued that he was healed and that he had fought with worse injuries, but Father had threatened to stay home with Damian, and Damian was not about to let that happen.

He was supposed to keep an eye on Gotham’s police scanners, but he occasionally checked Bludhaven’s as well. Grayson had been moved from first shift to second shift, and would be nearing the end of his workday. Damian just wanted to make sure everything was fine, even though he knew Grayson could handle himself.

_“All units respond. We’ve got a 10-71 at Bludhaven National."_

Damian sighed and stared up at the ceiling. Why couldn’t the fools shooting up the bank wait another hour? Then Nightwing could stop them. Instead, all they would get would be the pathetic excuses for officers that formed the Bludhaven Police Department. Well, and Officer Grayson. Maybe.

 _“10-4,”_ Grayson’s voice came across the scanner. Damian thought about listening longer, but he couldn’t keep away from Gotham’s trouble for too long. The Bludhaven baddie of the week was almost never as serious as Gotham’s, and Father needed every assistance he could get with the latest Arkham breakout.

 _“Red Hood to Robin. You asleep out there? Haven’t heard you talk all night.”_ Damian rolled his eyes. He had argued with Father that Todd should never have been involved in the investigation. Father had reminded him that Todd knew his way around Arkham, would know the most likely escape routes.

“Quiet night,” Damian responded, keeping his tone curt. “Much more peaceful than Bludhaven’s.”

_“Shit. ‘Wing out there yet?”_

“Not until later,” Damian answered. “Officer Grayson is reporting to the scene.”

_“Keep an eye on him, demon brat.”_

Damian thought about making some snarky comment, but didn’t want to keep away from his duties for too long, and so he muted Todd for the time being. 

He wasn’t worried. At least that’s what he told himself. Nightwing had been fighting crime since age nine. But Dick Grayson… Dick Grayson was a former acrobat and a college drop-out who’d only been an officer for less than a handful of years…

_“Bludhaven PD requesting Gotham assistance,” Damian frowned when he heard that. Assistance never meant anything good. “All available units please respond.”_

Oracle’s voice was the next one he heard. _“Oracle to Robin. Robin kill your comms. Now.”_

“I am not a child, Oracle,” Damian snapped through his transponder. “I am perfectly capable of listening to things others would find disturbing.”

_“Robin, don’t argue about this. Turn the comms and scanners off.”_

Damian shook his head and switched back to the Bludhaven scanner.

 _“We’ve got a 10-00, repeat a 10-00,”_ a panicked voice that was not Grayson’s came across the feed. Damian frowned and tried to remember what it meant. He’d never been good with scanner codes. Father had been working with him on that. The knot in his stomach grew tighter when he realized. _“Officer Grayson is down. Repeat. Officer Grayson is down.”_

He checked the suit trackers and frowned when he saw that Father was already well on his way to Bludhaven. A surge of anger boiled in his veins when he realized Oracle must have already sent him there, and kept Damian muted out of the conversation.

His heart was pounding in his chest. But they just said Grayson was down. Not dead. Damian could handle down. An ambulance would get there, and Grayson would be fine. Grayson had to be fine…

 _“Red Robin to Red Hood,”_ Damian frowned when Drake's voice came through his comm. He wasn’t supposed to be out patrolling with the others… _“What’s your twenty?”_

 _“God, Red,”_ Todd groaned. _“We have a secure line. You don’t have to talk in code.”_

_“Just answer the damn question, Hood.”_

_“Headed to ‘Wing’s turf,”_ Todd answered, and Damian felt a surge of anger as he wondered just how many people Gordon had told, how many other people were keeping things from him… _“Sounded like they needed help.”_

_“I’m coming too.”_

_“Nah, Replacement. Gotham needs someone on patrol.”_

_“He’s my brother too, Hood.”_

Damian started to reply, but the radio dispatcher and the voice that wasn’t Grayson’s were coming across the scanner again.

_“Condition?”_

_“Critical. En route to Bludhaven General.”_

Critical. Critical wasn’t good, it wasn’t good by any definition Damian could think of. But it wasn’t dead. Grayson had fight in him. He was going to pull through this. It wasn’t like he’d never been shot before.

 _“Don’t tell Robin.”_ Drake's voice. Damian glared at the screen, wishing he were facing the older boy just so he could give him a piece of his mind. And maybe a well-placed kick. Or two. Or three. He didn’t need to be sheltered. He’d dealt with far worse than Grayson being shot… Hadn’t he?

 _“Oracle to Robin,”_ Damian shoved his laptop to the side. _“I’m serious, Robin. Kill your comms.”_

“I can handle it,” he snapped. If Grayson were there, he would have yelled at Damian for being so rude to Gordon. But Grayson wasn’t there. He was in an ambulance on his way to the hospital, probably bleeding out, probably with intensive organ damage. And Damian had been sitting around watching some screens when it had happened.

_“Status?”_

Damian perked up, but the pause from the other end was too long, too careful… He felt his heart sink in his chest long before he heard the response.

_“Dead on arrival.”_

He wished he would have turned off the scanner like Gordon told him to.

 _“Red Hood to Robin,”_ Damian shut his eyes tightly. The last thing he needed was to deal with Todd’s insolence and arrogance. He didn’t need a snarky comment. He needed a time machine to go back and get Grayson out of that bank… _“I know you didn’t kill your comms.”_

“What do you want?” he snapped and glared at his radio, even though he knew Todd couldn’t see him.

 _“Take it from someone who knows, okay?”_ Todd spoke, and Damian hated that he was being gentle. He wanted angry Todd. He wanted to pick a fight. He wanted to hit something, or someone… _“Death ain’t so bad. It’s us living ones that get the raw end of the deal.”_

Damian just shook his head, forgetting Todd couldn’t see him, and shut everything down.

Grayson had promised he would never leave him.

Grayson had promised to always protect him.

And Grayson was gone.

And nothing was ever going to be okay again.


End file.
